Tom Clancy’s The Division is getting rid of Brooklyn, focusing only on Midtown

In an interview with The Examiner, developer Massive Entertainment revealed that although The Division was initially presented at E3 2013 has having gameplay set in Brooklyn, that borough of New York will not make the final cut.

The Division will instead take place solely in Midtown Manhattan. Creative director Magnus Jansen didn’t declare any story-driven reason behind the cut, but declared technical limitations, citing that “the 1 to 1 re-creation” of Midtown Manhattan “is a huge open-world experience and more than enough to sink your teeth into.”

The game ought to be pretty meaty, geographical scope notwithstanding, but it’s still disappointing that the game will be set in a single borough of New York when you consider the scope that was initially suggested at E3.

That doesn’t rule out other boroughs such as Queens, The Bronk and Brooklyn being folded into the open-world eventually, whether through expansions or future updates and post-launch content, but it does mean that New York-based players might have to wait a while to see what their neighborhood looks like when struck by a fictional pandemic.